Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks space exploration, science myths

"My personal definition of science literacy is, 'How much do you still wonder about the world around you,'" Tyson said. "What is your state of curiosity? To me, that is the essence of science literacy."

Tyson highlighted the importance of instilling curiosity in children. When a child is banging on pots and pans, they are performing auditory experiments, he said. When they play with an egg and it inevitably breaks, they are learning about brittleness.

"Some lessons need to be firsthand," Tyson said. "That's part of exploring the world around you."

Tyson said he believes educators are most responsible for instilling curiosity in children. He joked that the good teachers in the world need to be cloned.

Tyson has also been an outspoken proponent of space exploration and programs like NASA. Space exploration and the future-focused mindset it brings is the key to innovation, he said.

"If your best innovative thought is 'what best app I can put on my smartphone,' rather than tackling huge challenges that face our civilization—transportation, energy, health, security—these are major branches of our civilization that I don't see us giving attention to," Tyson said. " Space exploration is a long-term investment on the health and wealth of a nation. It's the kind of investment that private enterprise cannot lead."

Tyson also enumerated the faux science axioms he finds most frustrating:

• "'It's darkest before dawn.' No it's not. It's darkest when the sun is farthest from the horizon that it could possibly be and that's at your midnight."
• "'What goes up must come down.' No that's because you're not throwing it hard enough. If you throw that sucker at 7 miles per second, it's gonna leave Earth and go to the edge of the universe and not come back."
• "People say, 'The sun is yellow.' No it's not. It's white. If the sun were yellow, in broad daylight, snow would be yellow. Generally, it's not."